Florida politics, policy, and plain-spoken analysis by Gary Fineout.

October 2016

October 22, 2016

Ten years ago then-Leon County Sheriff Larry Campbell stared straight at me and said: "I've seen some terrible things in 45-plus years of law enforcement. But I can see Joy's eyes as clear today as I sit here talking to you."

Campbell was referring to Joy Sims, the 12-year-old daughter of Robert and Helen Sims. At the time he was speaking to me, it had been 40 years since that terrible tragic night when someone assaulted and murdered the Sims family. For Campbell, a 24-year-old deputy at the time of the murders, it became a case that haunted him throughout the years because no one was ever arrested for the crime.

He kept parts of the case file in his desk over the years and he tried unsuccessfully in the '80s to get an arrest in the case. I had talked to him several times about the murders and each time he would mention little, but scary details of the crime, such as the fact that it appeared that someone had taken a knife to shrubbery outside the Sims home which prompted Campbell to speculate they were anxiously whacking at the bushes just moments before the assault began. There were the similarities to In Cold Blood and that one of the suspects may have had a fondness for necrophilia.

Campbell passed away nearly two years ago, convinced he knew who had committed the murders but said that absent a confession it would likely be impossible to win a conviction.

Here's what I wrote back in 2006 for The Miami Herald:

*****

For those who lived in Tallahassee then, 1966 is still remembered as the year that changed everything.

That was the year once-open doors were locked, the pastor of one of the city's largest churches became a murder suspect and an entire lake was drained for evidence. Halloween was nearly canceled.

Women filled water guns with ammonia to better fight off an attacker. Children were kept home at night. And police wandered the streets with German shepherds, looking for the killers who hogtied and savagely murdered a family.

Forty years ago today, while many residents were watching Florida State University and Mississippi State play football, someone attacked Robert Sims, his wife Helen and their daughter in their modest brick house on a cul-de-sac.

All three were bound, their mouths stuffed with stockings. The two adults were blindfolded. Robert Sims, 42, a top official with the state Department of Education, was shot in the head. Helen Sims, 34, was shot twice in the head and once in the leg. Joy, 12, was stabbed six times, then shot in the head. Her panties were found pulled down, and there was evidence that she was molested.

Their bodies were discovered by Joy's older sister, who with another sibling had been baby-sitting for families who went to the football game. Robert Sims and Joy Sims died at the scene. Helen Sims lay in a coma for nine days before dying.

....Forty years later, the savage murders of the Sims family remain officially unsolved despite a massive investigation that has been reopened several times over the years. Campbell has two prime suspects, including one person he says has a fondness for necrophilia. But he says there's not enough evidence for a conviction.

*****

The 50th anniversary of this still officially unsolved crime has brought with it a renewal of interest.

The film, entitled 641 Muriel Court (after the address of the Sims home), will be shown at The Moon and features interviews with Henry Cabbage, who once went to court to try to get records related to the case, retired Tallahassee Democrat columnist Gerald Ensley, State Attorney Willie Meggs and Rocky Bevis, who was one of the first people who responded to the murder scene back in 1966.

The project by the filmmakers prompted a Mississippi newspaper, The Meridian Star, to do its own article on the Sims murders earlier this year. The newspaper pointed out that the Sims family had moved to Tallahassee 10 years earlier from Meridian and that all three victims were buried at a Baptist Church cemetery in the town.

Kyle Jones, of the FSU students who worked on the documentary, told the Star that the popular opinion in Tallahassee is that "Everybody knows everybody so everybody thinks they know what happened. Everybody thinks they know who did this. But the popular opinion in this city would be that those two did it and there was good reason for that, I think." But Jones did add: "We treated everybody in this equally because we're not going to pretend we know who did it."

Back in 2006 Campbell said he "believes there were two murderers, that it was a sex crime and that one of the suspects had a "hang-up" with dead people and probably had engaged in necrophilia. But he refuses to name the two suspects."

In the Herald article I noted that Cabbage "obtained a video showing Campbell and another detective interrogating a woman for hours in 1987. The woman, who now lives in Jacksonville, had a boyfriend who lived near the Sims family. A summary of the interviews says that she remembers going to the Sims' house that night - but that she can't remember any details.

The woman's boyfriend, who she later married and then divorced, told detectives in 1989 that he had nothing to do with the murders. The man, who now lives in St. Petersburg, theorized that "gangsters" killed the family."

While the speculation as to the identity of the murderers remains ongoing, there is no doubt that the Sims murders had a lasting impact on Tallahassee.

As Bevis, who helped his father uncut the ropes that bound the victims, told me back in 2006: "We just woke up one morning in Tallahassee and we were part of an evil world....It's disturbing to go to sleep knowing someone is still out there."

October 12, 2016

In a federal courtroom on Wednesday, a judge will hear arguments on whether or not the state's voter registration deadline should be extended beyond 5 p.m. due to Hurricane Matthew.

U.S. District Judge Mark Walker has already pushed back the Oct. 11 deadline by a day in order to hold the hearing after the Florida Democratic Party filed a lawsuit on Sunday evening. In his ruling granting the one-day extension, Walker said that the deadline amounts to a "severe burden on the right to vote" and he suggested it was unconstitutional.

The party filed the lawsuit after Gov. Rick Scott turned down requests including an informal suggestion from the campaign of Democratic nominee HillaryClinton to extend the deadline. Scott, who is supporting GOP nominee Donald Trump, said the reason he was doing it was that people had already had enough time to register.

It's not clear how hard the governor's office plans to fight to keep the deadline. A spokeswoman for Scott put out a statement on Tuesday that said that the state will accept the judge's decision _ and that the governor would even seek to change the law during the upcoming 2017 session.

But one question that is floating out there - and one that may not be totally resolved after the court hearing - is just how much power does Florida's governor have during emergencies?

Walker in his ruling suggested - but not definitely - that Scott lacked the authority to extend the voting deadline.

In his order Walker wrote that while Secretary of State Ken Detzner was an appropriate person for Democrats to sue since he was the chief election official, he didn't think that applied to the governor. He noted that while Scott has "general emergency powers" those powers may not include any power to alter the voting registration deadline. Those powers generally allow the governor to suspend laws if there is a declared emergency.

Walker pointed out, however, that there is a carve out in existing Florida law that allows the governor to delay or suspend an election due to an emergency. The judge then notes that section of law says nothing about changing the voter registration deadline.

That led Walker to conclude it is "wholly irrational in this instance for Florida to refuse the extend the voter registration deadline when the state already allows the governor to suspend or move the election date."

This was an interesting point brought up by Walker since the lawsuit did not even delve into Scott's emergency power. Instead the lawsuit filed by the party suggested that Scott's decision to keep the deadline amid the disruption, power outages and evacuations that occurred due to Matthew amounted to a violation of federal law and disenfranchisement of voters. Scott himself did not cite a lack of authority as a reason for his decision.

Now the elections emergency law cited by Walker has been used before.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush used it to alter the election in 10 counties following Hurricane Charley in 2004. This move allowed county officials to delay the start of early voting.

It's important to note here that Bush's order came on Aug. 19 - or less than 2 weeks before that year's primary - so it's not completely comparable. But another part of his order gave the secretary of state's office the power to "modify, suspend, amend" any deadlines in the entire election code that could not be complied with due to the emergency caused by the hurricane.

But the truth is that several Florida governors have used their emergency powers in broad ways _ and in most instances they have never been challenged.

And while I'm sure it could be argued that the actions of past governors do not create any legal precedence, this shows that Scott could have had a justification to take action if he wanted.

Former Gov. Charlie Crist, for example, used his emergency powers in 2008 to extend early voting hours (a move that privately infuriated some Republicans, but who opted against suing him). Crist even in the final days of his governorship ordered that the state begin to offer extended jobless benefits to Floridians that had been approved by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama.

Scott himself back in February 2015 _ without the justification of an emergency _ issued an executive order to suspend an 11th grade standardized test that was about to be given to high school juniors that spring. Scott contended that he could do under his "supreme executive power" but then noted that the Legislature would have a chance to repeal the law that authorized the test later that year.

Were these moves legal? That's hard to tell since the actions were never challenged in court.

But what it shows is that there have been instances in the past where Florida's most recent governors have taken action. And not once did they suggest that they lacked the authority to do so.